CRANFORD — John Pisano views his role as personal injury attorney as a way of sticking up for the little guy and sticking it to the big guy.

And he puts his heart into each case, no matter how big or small.

“The smallest and biggest case I handle with the exact same level of organizational skills,” said Pisano, a Roselle Park native whose practice is based in Cranford. “It’s not like if a case is small, I’ll neglect it. Every case I focus on with the same level of obtaining experts and being certain a case is trial-ready.”

Pisano’s results have recently been recognized by the American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys, a third-party attorney-rating organization that publishes an annual list of the top 10 personal injury attorneys in each state. The institute has selected Pisano among its 10 best in New Jersey for client satisfaction.

Pisano, who has been working out of the same office on North Union Avenue for the past 24 years, said he got into personal injury work by happenstance.

A client needing help with his personal injury case was referred to Pisano by a neighbor 30 years ago. Before he knew it, he had four such cases, then eight. Today, he said he typically handles more than 600 injury cases at one time.

Many of Pisano’s clients are, as he puts it, “being consumed by medical expenses” brought on by circumstances beyond their control.
Many are hindered by what he sees as anti-consumer legislation. That’s when he coordinates witnesses and experts, and often finds himself taking on corporations.

“Unfortunately, a personal injury attorney has to struggle through an area of insurance where you have to have to get medicine approved by insurance carriers,” Pisano said. “So, you have to really be aggressive to get people surgery that they should have automatically been entitled to, and get them covered by their insurance carriers.

Without the right attorney on that issue, you are then precluded from pursuing the bodily injury claim, where they are entitled to compensation for permanent injuries. It’s gotten to be a more complicated field than people realize. Insurance companies have legislation in place where they can wiggle out of paying for a lot of surgeries that they should automatically pay for.”